To the Editor:
As always, I was pleased to receive my Winter 2006 copy of the Earlhamite. I was also very pleased to see a story about Earlham's recent perfect-score for Post-Graduate health matriculations. Congratulations to all 13 of those students! Unfortunately, your number was off, by at least 1. As a graduate of Earlham's class of 2004, I enrolled in a post-graduate health program in 2005. My program is in Nursing, unlike any of the other recent graduates. I am studying to become a masters-prepared Nurse Practitioner at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions (MGHIHP).
Nursing of course, has struggled with its own identity for decades, and has often taken a back-seat to Medicine, but it seemed particularly telling to have been left off Bill Harvey's list of recent graduates pursuing careers in the health field. In the future, please try to include all allied-health professions in your articles, and not just continue the legitimization of Medicine; It will bring Nursing, and other valuable health science professionals one step closer to receiving the respect they so dearly deserve.
Sincerely,
Nicolas Houghton
Class of 2004
by Tony Bing
When I attended the thirtieth reunion of the PAGS program, one of the things alums talked of was their desire to share another off-campus experience together, perhaps revisiting sites they explored as undergraduates or sites they would have wished to see. Many talked about a trip to Jerusalem, where they could see what has taken place in recent years.
I have spent much of my time since retirement continuing my passionate involvement with the Israel/Palestine conflict, coauthoring an AFSC book, “When the Rain Returns,” making several trips to work on a school for traumatized children in Bethlehem, setting up a Friends International Center in
Ramallah, picking olives, and serving on the Middle East advisorycommittee of the AFSC. I was thus more than happy to plan an Earlham Alumni trip to catch up with realities on the ground.
With the recent Palestinian elections, that political landscape has changed dramatically since I was there in October and will undoubtedly shift even more by the time we take our fifteen day trip June 25-July 8 this summer. I hope you will consider going with us, even if you have never been before. To learn more about the itinerary, the costs, the goals, contact Julie Bruns in the PAGS office, brunsju@earlham.edu .
For a detailed description of the trip, visit: http://www.earlham.edu/~pags/israel-palestine.html .